Matcha slushies?

When I make drink matcha, I usually mix it with soy or almond milk in a blender with a little sweetener (coconut sugar) and maybe some ice. I may add vanilla too.

I guess this is a result of drinking the green tea "ice blended" from Coffee Bean before I started making it myself.

Is this tea blasphemy? I have tried mixing it with hot water more like the traditional way but I still prefer my slushies. I think the sweetness/creaminess of the milk mixture helps balance the bitterness and stimulating nature of the matcha. I would think heating/steeping the matcha would change its properties, too. I seem to like the matcha unheated.

There is no right or wrong way to have matcha, although purists will tell you that you must have it hot.

Although I am a student of the tea ceremony, I like having matcha in many different ways.

When I was in Japan recently, I noticed that not only was matcha served in the traditional way, but also served cold in many different ways, including slushies, milk shakes, matcha 'sofuto' shake with ice cream, smoothies, and also straight matcha served cold, especially during the stifling hot summers!! I tried all of them, and they were all delicious!!

Though I’m not an avid drinker of Matcha, my unasked-for take on the matter of blasphemous tea practices is as such: there’s a difference between drinking tea for cultivating knowledge and between adding things to tea that ARE NOT WATER.* I enjoy both, but they don’t fall in the same category for me personally.

*Worse: calling tisanes tea not because it’s short hand, but because one doesn’t know the difference.

i love it all, with honey, concentrated sweet milk, milk, if the matcha is too bitter to drink on its own. they help mask the grassy bitterness in cheaper matchas.

but for higher grade matcha i just leave it alone because it is already wonderful and i like the taste, it would be a shame if i miss the special umami aroma. it will be creamy like foam if prepared goodly with the bamboo whisk.

i love matcha au lait with heated milk and sugar or honey. i like with ice and shaken cold matcha is delicious. there are even matchas specific to prepare cold. there are instant sweet matcha powder drinks, that is easy to make & easy to dissolve.

there is no wrong way to prepare your matcha! make and enjoy as you please! don't force yourself to drink something you don't like for others' sake or tea blasphemy. i put in cakes and desserts too. get creative!

in the end, i believe to appreciate the matcha in its truest form is matcha + hot water. also because matcha flavors in the powdered fine grounded leaves are not released until adding hot water that is a certain temperature like 70 to 85 degrees depending on the matcha... but then that is a different topic, technique, taste buds, and price tag all together...